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Reading about exorcisms in Islam and it really drove home to me what makes Islam so thoroughly unappealing.
Rather than explaining the processes and theology behind it, the entire article is very amateurishly written and spends most time detailing what’s “forbidden.”
Rather than explaining the processes and theology behind it, the entire article is very amateurishly written and spends most time detailing what’s “forbidden.”
The writer on Wikipedia spends most of the article browbeating and moralizing to the reader, talking about what’s “shirk” and what’s proper. Even when describing things actually present in hadiths or the Quran, it all read in a very aggressive and unappealing way.
I then thought about how so many common Muslims and preachers spend so much time talking down, browbeating and micromanaging others. Nothing can be discussed without pointing out how X is Haram or how X is un-Islamic. It’s not even just obscure fundies. This is everywhere.
Even when reading the Quran, I didn’t feel very spiritually impressed — the voice of Allah reads very harshly and demeaningly, like a schoolteacher or boss berating you. The glory of Allah is only ever emphasized through how pathetic the reader is.
This is the core of what’s unappealing about Islam: it’s so restrictive to the human spirit. The core of Islamic teaching of proper life revolve around a restrictive, regulated lifestyle and thinking that are absolute requirements. It’s not a surprise people call it a cult.
This kind of restrictive thought and tendency to moral police others seems to manifest in its followers since its inception to today. The status of how “Islamic” one is is measured by how much they criticize others for their faults. No thought to personal goodness.
There were historical attempts to derive out of Islam some form of religion that’s conducive to human spiritual development — Shiism, Sufism, the teachings of Rumi, Shams and Hafez, but these are all considered heterodox and not “true Islam.”
There are Muslim countries that aren’t like this. Central asians (excluding probably tajiks) tend to be quite modest and hospitable people. None of the confrontation and feelings of superiority. However, this may reflect less on the religion and more on general cultural character
I’ll leave off with this anecdote: when Rus prince Vladimir sent emissaries to foreign lands to learn about their religions, they reported this about the Muslim Volga Bulgars:
“There is no gladness among them, only sorrow and a great stench. Their religion is not a good one.”
“There is no gladness among them, only sorrow and a great stench. Their religion is not a good one.”
